SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Two people have been ordered to pay a fine on Monday for their involvement in an anti-mask protest at a Granite School District meeting in 2021.
Ted Michael Tyler, and Sophia Anderson pleaded no contest to their charges on Monday, March 13, in a South Salt Lake court. Both of them are to pay $340 each in fines for their disorderly conduct charge, which had been amended from a Class B misdemeanor to an infraction.
Additionally, charges for two other individuals, Bernadette Ethel Brockman of Taylorsville and Sara Lea McArthur of American Fork, have been dismissed on Monday.
Eleven people were initially charged with disorderly conduct and disrupting a public meeting in June 2021. Aside from Tyler and Anderson, all of their charges have been dismissed.
On May 4, 2021, the Granite School District was forced to abruptly end a school board meeting after it was reportedly disrupted by anti-mask protestors.
Once the public comment section of the meeting ended, Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley says some people in the meeting were “not satisfied” with their opportunity to address the board. At the end of the meeting, those who are against the school district’s mask mandate began chanting “No more masks.”
“I think it’s important to understand that we live in a democracy, we have the right to free speech and the board respects people’s abilities to vocalize those things,” Horsley said. “However, I believe at some point, a line was crossed.”